During the winter season, your home’s furnace is one of the more critical components in the house. It is very important for your furnace to run properly in order to keep everyone in your household warm. A heating system that is properly maintained will provide maximum heat output to your house without emitting any harmful emissions or wasting any energy.
To make sure that your home heating system is operating optimally whenever the weather is cold outdoors, you should make sure that you make use of the following furnace maintenance tips.
Begin Your Maintenance Early
Sudden heating system failures seem to always take place on the coldest nights. To help prevent this from occurring, use a proactive approach by having furnace maintenance performed once per year at least. The best thing to do is have maintenance work done prior to the beginning of the heating season. If it is a cooling unit also, have a second maintenance check performed in the spring prior to the warm weather arriving.
Administer an Eye Test
Prior to begin working on our heating system, do a quick visual inspection. Make sure the venting pipe is angled and securely fastened. Also, other tubes – like the air conditioning system’s drainage tubes – need to also be securely fastened. Smell the gas flex on the system. If there is a rotten egg aroma, that means there is a gas leak in the furnace somewhere.
Inspect The Furnace’s Thermostat Wires
After shutting off the power and removing the furnace doors, start your heating system maintenance by slightly pulling on the furnace wires to make sure they are properly fitted and tight.
Vacuum & Dust
Debris, dirt and dust and cause your heating system to either not work at all or sub-optimally. In order to prevent this from occurring, apply a soft-tipped brush against the furnace’s inner components. Doing this will loosen debris and dust without damaging the interior of the furnace. After you have finished your brushing, use a portable vacuum to remove the material.
Clean Flame Sensor
Having a dirty flame sensor can cause the heating system to completely stop working, so this part should be cleaned once per year at least. Unscrew the sensor and then hold it from the bottom and use an emery cloth to clean it with. After you have cleaned the sensor, you can replace it and reinstall the door.
Hire Professional for Mechanical Maintenance
If handling any of the above tasks makes you uncomfortable, you can have a professional furnace maintenance technician do it instead. Proper maintenance tasks that relate to the furnace in your house can be difficult to do without having a mechanical background. Even in situations where you think you could do a majority of the maintenance steps on your own, hiring a professional is still a good to have the system thoroughly inspected and to make sure it is operating properly.